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Who Can Claim an 18 year old college student as Dependents For Tax Purposes?
Anonymous6 views2 answers
My son is 18 1/2 and has always split 50/50 custody time with me and his father. However, the custody order states that his father has the right to claim him for income tax purposes. Since my husband and I have always provided him with the majority of his support and now pay his college tuition, we would like to claim him on our taxes. Can we legally do this since he is over 18 (for half of last year), or is the court order still in effect? The order does not state a date, age, or any other conditions when it would "expire." We have without question paid for all college expenses and 100% of medical, dental expenses.
Your orders regarding custody, visitation, and child support have terminated now that your son is 18 and a graduate of high school. That being said, it's a good idea to make sure that both you and your son's father are on the same page regarding who claims your son on taxes - the last thing you want to do is create an audit, which is likely to happen if you both claim him. It seems appropriate that you would claim your son since he is still your dependent.
Good luck!
Since your son is in college now the child support decree stating your ex-husband can claim him is no longer valid. You need to be able to meet the qualifying child test to be able to claim him as a dependent. At this point I agree that you should talk with your ex about who is going to claim him but it is ultimately all going to fall on who files first. If you file second and try to claim your son the e-file system will reject the dependent as the SSN has already been claimed. The return will have to be corrected before it will transmit.
